


Orange Cars and Awful License Plates

by e_cat



Category: All For the Game - Nora Sakavic
Genre: I can't believe it took me this long to post any aftg fics, I don't even want to look at it anymore, I was supposed to write this like a month ago, I'll do the other part later, I'm just giving up briefly, M/M, and this is the first one I post, it'll probably be an eternity before I post the second half too, this is utter nonsense
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-04-17
Updated: 2016-04-17
Packaged: 2018-06-02 17:05:32
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,030
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6574630
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/e_cat/pseuds/e_cat
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Neil wants to show Andrew his new car... and his new license plate. Andrew is not amused.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Orange Cars and Awful License Plates

**Author's Note:**

> So sorry to the people who probably thought I forgot I was writing this! Here's the first half, because I just can't hold onto this anymore. This chapter: Andrew's POV. Probably a little annoying in how long it takes me to reveal certain plot points... Oops. Sorry.

Andrew’s phone started ringing right around the time that Neil was supposed to show up for the weekend. It was Neil calling, and the only reason that Andrew bothered to answer was because he already knew what to say to Neil’s cancellation: “Your coach does realize that there is an Exy stadium in this city, does he not?”

“What?” Neil said. “No, I told you – that was the only time. Didn’t I tell you that I threatened to walk if he did it again? It was fucking brilliant. You should have seen his face!”  
Andrew scowled into his mug of hot chocolate. “You cannot ‘walk,’” he informed. “You are indebted to the Japanese mob.”

“My coach doesn’t know that.”

Andrew could just see the grin on Neil’s face as he said it, and it irritated him to no end. “That’s four hundred and twenty-seven, Josten. Why the fuck are you calling me?”

“Come downstairs,” Neil replied cryptically.

Andrew took that to mean that Neil had arrived, and he hated that he found that favorable to the alternative. Immediately, he answered, “No.”

“Come downstairs,” Neil repeated, still refusing to elaborate on why he would want Andrew to leave his apartment. He didn’t say _please,_ which Andrew was still grateful for, but he could hear it in Neil’s tone.

“Four twenty-eight,” Andrew amended, moving to put his mug in the sink and grab his keys in spite of himself. “Are we going somewhere?”

“Do you want to go somewhere?” Neil countered. Andrew hung up on him and grabbed his wallet, just in case. He didn’t bother to grab a jacket, because Neil didn’t need to know that he’d put in any extra effort.

Andrew took his time getting down the stairs, because Neil was more entertaining when Andrew kept him waiting. He was not at all happy with the part of himself that wanted to go more quickly. It was tolerable, however, as long as it could be overruled, which it usually could be. This had not been such a long separation that Andrew was going to rush.  
Neil was bouncing with anticipation at the bottom of the stairs when Andrew got there. “You are incredibly slow,” Neil informed him, which earned him a slick smile. Neil rolled his eyes at Andrew’s amusement and held out his hand. “Yes or no?” he asked.

Andrew stared at the hand for a moment. Usually, at this point in their relationship, Neil did not need to ask before taking Andrew’s hand in his own, or even for some less innocent interactions, but it was always best to check when they’d been apart for a while. Andrew, when it stopped seeming weird, got used to not having anyone’s hands on him, and it could be startling for that to change so suddenly. Today, however, was not a bad day, and so Andrew said, very slowly, “Yes.”

Neil grabbed his hand and began tugging him towards the parking garage. Andrew knew that Neil’s car would be parked right next to his – it had been a non-negotiable term of his rental agreement that he would have two parking spaces, so that Neil wouldn't have to worry about visitor parking when he visited. Andrew, of course, had never mentioned the lengthy argument he’d had with the building manager over that agreement.

They rounded the corner just in front of the twin parking spaces, and Andrew stopped short. Neil let go of Andrew’s hand and turned to face him, taking in his reaction (or, hopefully, lack thereof). “I got a new car,” Neil supplied helpfully, as if that much wasn’t obvious. Neil was grinning from ear to ear, which was as distracting as it was irritating.

Andrew tore his gaze away from Neil to appraise the new vehicle. It was backed into the space neatly, which Andrew hadn’t been aware that Neil was capable of, but which he had apparently put an effort into for the purpose of introducing the car from a flattering angle. The car itself – well, it was pretty nice. It looked expensive, perhaps even more so than Andrew’s car, and it was shining as the result of a recent carwash. The whole thing looked like it could have come off of the pages of a car magazine. Although Andrew kind of hated the amount of effort Neil had so obviously gone to for the purposes of this exposition, he didn’t have any complaints about the car itself, except –

“Why the fuck is it orange?”

The expectant curl of Neil’s mouth twisted into a smirking grin. “Team spirit,” he offered breezily.

“Your team colors are blue and white,” Andrew replied, even though he knew exactly where Neil was going with this. The shining orange of the car under the fluorescent lighting of the parking garage was a little washed out, but Andrew didn’t doubt that it would be bright enough to cause eye strain under the light of the sun. It could probably even make Neil’s old PSU hoodie look dull, which was a real accomplishment, considering the stupid thing was completely incapable of being inconspicuous in Andrew’s laundry basket (and Neil was incapable of not grinning whenever he spotted it there).

Neil gave Andrew a look that let on that he was quite aware that Andrew was just being difficult. It wasn’t that hard to figure out. “The Palmetto State Foxes,” Neil informed him slowly. “Perhaps you’ve heard of them? Class I college Exy? They’re the team where I really got my start in Exy, you know. Where Exy stopped being something I was using to fill the time until I died and became something I was really living for. You know, there was a goalie there who had the same turnaround. Minyard, I think his name was.”

Andrew glowered at him, unimpressed. “I think you misunderstand my motivations,” he said.

“Do I?” Neil challenged, and then, before Andrew could respond, he gestured to the car. “Do you want to go for dinner?”

Andrew eyed the orange monstrosity. “I thought we were getting takeout.” He did not say that he had been collecting takeout menus for a week in preparation for this, because that was not something that Neil needed to know.

Neil waved him off. “We can get takeout tomorrow,” he said. “Where do you go when you don’t want takeout?”

Andrew crossed his arms. “The grocery store,” he supplied unhelpfully.

Neil replied with a look that Andrew definitely had not spent any nights thinking about. “We’re getting pancakes,” he decided. “I can drive around until I find a place, or you can tell me where to go.”

“Four hundred and twenty-nine,” Andrew announced. “Are you trying to make up for lost time?”

Neil shrugged. “Is it working?” He dangled an overloaded key ring from his fingers. “If you ask nicely, I might even let you drive.”

“I do not want to drive,” Andrew replied. He kind of wanted to drive. “I hate your new car.”

Neil smirked. “Forgive me for not taking you at your word on that one.” He reached into his pocket and tossed a spare set of keys to Andrew before heading for the passenger seat. He used his own keys to unlock the car, but paused with his hand on the handle. “Oh,” he added, “make sure you check out the license plate before you get in.” Andrew did not like the self-satisfied grin on his face one bit.

“What the hell did you do, Josten?” he demanded.

How or when Neil had managed to perfect that wide-eyed innocent look, Andrew didn’t know, but he made great use of it now. “I guess you’ll have to look to find out.”

“You are not worth the air that you breathe,” Andrew decided, but it didn’t come out sounding as threatening as he’d meant it to. Neil fit that stupid grin to his face and got into the car.

Briefly, Andrew considered not checking what the license plate was, but the fact that Neil had gone to the effort of backing the car in, presumably for dramatic effect, did not bode well. Really, there wasn’t much to lose by checking the license plate, since the only option that didn’t have Andrew admitting that he cared would be for him to leave Neil in the parking garage and return to his apartment, and he wasn’t going to do that.

Andrew offered up as menacing a glare as he could muster, though he had long since lost hope of intimidating Neil with it, and slowly maneuvered around to the back of the car. He was perfectly prepared to walk by and glance at the plate before continuing around to his door and driving to a diner without a single comment. Then he caught sight of the thing.

Andrew stopped short and stared at the black and orange license plate, themed for Andrew’s professional team. That wasn’t what had gotten Andrew’s attention, however – he could have kept walking if that was all Neil had done. If not for the fact that Neil had gone to the trouble to customize his plate number on top of that.

The beeping of the car horn echoing around the enclosed space startled Andrew from his frozen state. He shot a glare through the car at Neil, who had twisted in his seat to grin back at him. “Hurry up, Minyard,” Neil called, “we don’t have all day!”

Andrew glared at the car with an intensity that should have incinerated it and stomped around to the driver’s seat. He got in the car and slammed the door. “You,” he said, “are not funny.”

“No,” Neil agreed, though there was amusement in his tone. “It was Nicky’s idea.”

Andrew glanced at him, but didn’t comment further. He started the car and tore out of the parking garage, casually constructing a list of things he could do to Nicky from across the ocean. He didn’t want to see that idiotic license plate anytime soon, so Andrew plotted a course to the further place he knew of that served pancakes and left the syrup on the table.

Out of the corner of his eye, Andrew saw Neil shift to look at him. “What are you thinking about?” he asked, his voice taking on that quiet _Neil_ tone now that he wasn’t in the midst of a conspiratorial joke. Andrew didn’t understand how he could have moved past it so quickly.

“I’m thinking that destroying this car might be worth dying over,” Andrew replied. “You shouldn’t have given me the keys.”

Neil shrugged, unconcerned. “Since when do you care about dying?”

He was clearly not focusing on the important part of that statement, and irritation burned beneath Andrew’s skin. How could Neil _still_ be this stupid? Andrew flicked him and unimpressed glance and said, “Four hundred and thirty-three.”

“I think you’ve forgotten how to count,” Neil scoffed, sounding amused and pleased with himself.

“Stop talking,” Andrew said, cutting the wheel so that he could pull into the parking lot of a diner at the last second. It wasn’t the one he’d been intending to go to, but it had decent hot chocolate and Andrew was beginning to think that he couldn’t stand to be in this pointless car for another minute.

Andrew pulled crookedly into the middle of two parking spaces and hoped the car got towed. He got out and slammed the door closed, but he waited for Neil before heading into the diner. Even when Neil was proving himself once again to be the most frustrating aspect of Andrew’s life, it was impossible to leave him behind.

“It’s just a license plate,” Neil said quietly as they were waiting for the hostess to seat them. “Nicky practically begged me to do it. I didn’t really think it would be a problem?”

“It’s not a problem,” Andrew replied without inflection. It shouldn’t be a problem. Neil could get whatever idiotic license plate he wanted to, and Andrew shouldn’t care. This would probably irritate some of the others of their former teammates as well, and that should be enough.

“I can get rid of it,” Neil offered, but that wouldn’t do at all. Asking Neil to discard the vanity plate would be equivalent to Andrew admitting to the Foxes and possibly the rest of the world that he cared. Neil knew that this was not a viable option, so he didn’t wait for Andrew to respond before adding, “That’s for the rest of the world, you know.” He kept talking as the hostess showed them to their table, and the fact that he was glancing over his shoulder at Andrew somehow made the whole thing worse. “It’s different with you,” Neil said. “You aren’t like anyone else.” He slid into one side of the booth and watched with _that_ look as Andrew moved into the other.

“Four thirty-four,” Andrew said, because he didn’t know what else to say when Neil said things like that, when Neil looked at him like that. “Going on four thirty-five.”

Andrew got a brief moment of having that smile all to himself before Neil turned it on their waitress, and it annoyed him to no end that Neil could do things like this to him. While Andrew was busy glaring at the menu, Neil told the waitress, “I’m going to start with a water, and he’ll have a hot chocolate.”

“Boring as always,” Andrew commented once the waitress was gone.

Neil grinned. “That’s funny,” he said, “because you actually find me interesting.”

Andrew scowled at him. “I don’t know where you got that idea,” he replied. “I hate you.”

Neil nodded stoically. “Except when you don’t.”

“I always hate you,” Andrew corrected. “Four thirty-six.”

“Does this mean you forgive me?” Neil asked. “For the car?”

“Forgiveness and grudges are for the weak-willed,” Andrew replied cryptically. Truthfully, he had almost no problem with the car itself, and he was only slightly annoyed that its license plate had been burned into his mind. However, he was not going to give Neil the satisfaction of knowing that.

However, this didn’t seem to bother Neil much. A slow smile crept onto his face. “That seems contradictory,” he accused. There wasn’t really a question there, so Andrew didn’t bother responding. Neil had just enough brain cells to know when he was being shut down, so he sighed dramatically and glanced out the window instead. Then he let out a small, startled laugh.

Without meaning to, Andrew followed his gaze. Unfortunately, this meant that he was staring right at the back of Neil’s new car. Again. The letters “IM FINE” seemed to stare right back at him.

“You know,” Neil commented, drawing Andrew’s attention away from the window, “you really did a shit job at parking.”

“You did a shit job at picking a license plate,” Andrew retorted.

“So you are upset about it,” Neil concluded. “Though, you’ve taken it better than Nicky thought you would – he bet fifty bucks that you would actually kill me.” He smirked. “Aaron bet a hundred that you’d kill Nicky.”

“I think that telling me that voids the bet,” Andrew informed him.

“When have you ever let expectations get in the way of what you want to do?” Neil pointed out. His hand had made its way onto Andrew’s side of the table, apparently without either of them noticing. Andrew nearly let himself stare at it.

“Oh, so true,” he said. “Not to worry, though: my plans for your murder are no more immediate than they were yesterday. I may have to rethink my disposal plan, however, to include your new car. Perhaps I’ll just burn you in it.”

Neil gave him an unimpressed look. “I expected something more original from you. I never took you for a copycat.”

Andrew nodded, slightly impressed with Neil’s cool response. “Right you are,” he said. “Off a cliff, then?” Neil simply raised an eyebrow in reply, not even having to speak to ask, _Do you really want to get that close to that drop?_

Before Andrew had to come up with a way to reply to Neil’s nonverbal challenge, their drinks arrived and Neil took the opportunity to order their food. As Neil finished up his own order and started in on Andrew’s, Andrew caught the waitress shooting him a curious glance, probably wondering why Andrew had refused to say anything to her thus far. He ignored her and emptied three sugar packets into his hot chocolate.

The waitress retreated and Neil watched silently as Andrew meticulously stirred his hot chocolate and took a couple tentative sips. It wasn’t great, but it was passable. He added another packet of sugar and repeated the process. It still wasn’t the best he’d had, but the best had never really had anything to do with ingredients, anyways.

Andrew set down the mug and didn’t resist as Neil slid it away from him to take a sip. He made a face at the sweetness of it, like he always did. It was probably true that he only did it because he knew that Andrew would watch him. He took the mug back and watched Neil watch him take another sip. “Your license plate is stupid,” he said slowly.

Neil, unfortunately, could be perceptive at times, and he seemed to pick up on Andrew’s tone. “But?” He prompted. He was smiling like he’d already won, and Andrew wanted to tell him that this hadn’t been a battle, but that seemed like it would be a waste of his breath.

Andrew scowled into his hot chocolate for a moment before looking up. “It’s not the stupidest idea you’ve ever had,” he acknowledged. “I will live with it.”

“So you’re not going to pry it off in the middle of the night?” Neil checked. When Andrew just stared at him, he shrugged. “That was Dan’s bet.” It wasn’t a bad idea, actually, though it wouldn’t accomplish anything other than allowing him to make a point.

“I have no plans to vandalize your car,” Andrew assured him. He did, however, have another plan forming in the back of his mind. But that was an issue to address on another day.


End file.
